Horror games expected to cause first virtual reality death

Virtual reality is experiencing a renaissance thanks to the work being done to bring both Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus to market. Combined with the right peripherals, these devices could revolutionize gaming and bring a whole new level of immersion to play. However, it also has some people worried about death.

The more immersed you are in an experience, the more likely you are to react to it realistically. Denny Unger, creative director at games developer Cloudhead Games, believes because of this it won’t be long before we have our first death in VR. By that he means someone actually dying while hooked up to a virtual reality experience.

That may sound extreme, but it’s actually a valid point of view. Unger picks out horror games as the probable first type of VR game to cause a death. We’ve all played a horror game where something appears unexpectedly and it’s combined with audio and visual effects to heighten the emotion of the moment. The reaction of the player is to jump, maybe let out a scream, and their heart rate increases rapidly. It’s great when a game can cause that type of reaction.

With virtual reality, though, such a scenario is going to seem all the more real, meaning the effect on the player will be that much greater. Hook someone up to a VR headset, have them hold STEM packs, and put them on a treadmill, and they soon accept the game as being their reality. If that person has a heart condition, you can imagine how easy it would be to scare them to death.

Virtual reality hardware will ship with the usual warnings about not using it if you have a known medical condition, but just like with the warnings that pop up on existing hardware and software, they will mostly be ignored. Someone dying while playing a game wearing an Oculus Rift is inevitable if it becomes a popular peripheral. However, general concern will only be raised if deaths start occurring on a regular basis.

Cloudhead Games has developed the virtual reality game The Gallery: Six Elements, which has recently been Greenlit on Steam, you can see footage of it running on Oculus Rift below: